


And Then You Came Back

by puffythepig



Category: SpongeBob SquarePants (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Enemies to Friends, Fluff, Implied Past Relationships, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 18:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12965262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puffythepig/pseuds/puffythepig
Summary: Plankton finds himself homeless after The Chun Bucket crumbles. Karen has left him, and he only one there for him is Spot. As he tries to sleep in the rubble, a familiar hand reaches for him and helps.





	And Then You Came Back

Plankton could still remember it as if it were yesterday. 

The day he had officially stomped away from his best friend. He remembered it clearly. The look on the his friends’s face stood out in his memory. The pure look of betrayal, the one that still occasionally popped up in his dreams, begging for him to turn around. That one. He found it once again haunting his mind as he stirred in his sleep and shot up like a rocket launched by a squirrel, ready to scream sorry, only to realize that it was all still a dream. He sniffed coldly and glimpses around, remembering how the Chun Bucket had been demolished mere hours earlier.

Everything. He gave up everything, and what did he have to show for it? Even his wife that he bickered with had left him. Sure, it was on good terms, and part of him was happy for her, as she held the hand of her new lover and stared down at him, her screen void of any emotion. “I’m sorry.” She mumbled, and then turn and left.

When she had returned they sat down and talked about it for what felt like hours. She hugged him close as if he were a child, but still, nothing. They never had any sparks between them, and for a long while, that was okay. But with the two of them rapidly aging, she decided it was now or never that she found herself a new start. With a bittersweet goodbye this time she left for good, and the last he heard she went on a honeymoon with her new wife to Texas.

Slowly, he lifted a piece of rubble into his arms and threw it over himself in hopes of keeping warm. Of course, the metal only worsened the situation, so in despair, he glanced up yet again and peered around before he spotted it. A book. 

Grimacing, he stood up and stared to drag the paperback over to where he had been curled up previously, preparing to shield both himself and Spot. The micro-organism whined in impatience, and the sound surprised Plankton, who fell onto his bottom, tearing the paper ungracefully.  
“Hey, don’t be so needy! I’m trying my...” his eye caught sight of the ripped sheet and he dropped it entirely, staring down the old photo.

It was of him and Eugene. In the photo, he sat with a cheerful grin on the other’s shoulder, smiling as if he were the happiest boy in the world. Smiling fondly at the memory, he decided it was true. He certainly was the happiest boy alive back then.

He didn’t realize he was crying until teardrops stained the page. It had been years since he had last skimmed through the pages of his old scrapbook, and it brought the memories from long ago back into the front of his head. Truly, he found himself closing his eye and begging for another chance under his breath; when he opened it, he found himself staring up at his rival with shock. 

The crab leaned down and held out his claw. Plankton naturally recoiled at the memory of the many times he was thrown about by those same hands. Frowning, he stared up at the the man as if he hadn’t just been sobbing over his photo. “What do you want?” He spat out, his malice sounding weaker than usual. He told himself it was the cold doing it to him.

Right away, his old friend gently wrapped his claw around him and lifted him up. “Sheldon, it’s below freezing and you’ve no place to sleep,” he reasoned quietly, shamefully, “please, come stay with me and my daughter.”

“I was doing fine where I was.” It was a weak lie, but being in the hold of the other again rendered him soft, and he didn’t want Krabs to see that. He squirmed out of the other’s hold and back onto the hard ground, pulling his pet towards him. 

“Sheldon...” The crab muttered sadly, before his eyes flickered over the photo that was now covering the other’s shivering body, his eyes peeking up gleefully. “You...you kept this photo? After so many years?”

Plankton sighed and pulled the photo tighter over him, ignoring the words. He obviously had kept the photo, after all. What else was he supposed to say?

The man took notice of the book laying face down as well, gingerly lifting it up and instantly releasing a chuckle. “Oh, I remember this...” he smiled fondly and once again held out his hand for his old comrade. “Please, Sheldon... I can’t stand to see you so helpless.”

Plankton huffed and crossed his arms. While he wanted desperately to go to Krabs’ warm home, he couldn’t help but leave his defenses up. “Then look away.” 

The crab did just that, and Plankton found himself actually afraid of the other walking away. He wanted to call out to him, but he didn’t have to. The other turned back around and started to pull out his wallet.

Right away, Sheldon shivered. The idea of Krabs of all people giving him money was something he could barely stand to witness. He turned his head and waited, but instead of a dollar, Krabs handed him a photo.

Plankton couldn’t believe his eyes. The same photo that was tightly held around his body for some sort of warmth was carefully displayed in his wallet, which was easily his most prized possession. “Eugene.” He couldn’t help but feel his eye fill up with tears. He really didn’t want to cry—not here in the cold, not now with his rival in front of him— but he couldn’t hold back the tears that slid down his cheek. “How long have you...” he couldn’t even finish his sentence, he was choking up so bad. Spot licked the other’s face, desperately trying to cleanse his owner of his sadness, causing the green man to chuckle as he rubbed the animal’s head. 

Krabs held out his claw one last time, and with a gentle smile, Plankton tenderly stepped into it, calling Spot after him, who nervously boarded the hand. With his free hand, Krabs put away his photo and wallet and lifted the other book into his arms, safely sliding his old friend into his front shirt pocket. 

Plankton couldn’t help but feel vulnerable. Krabs could easily flick him away at any point he wanted, but he knew that he wouldn’t. As Krabs carried the dozing copepod and his pet home, he found himself growing tired.

When the group arrived him and Pearl greeted her father and bid him goodnight, he almost had forgetter about his old pal. Carefully, Eugene arranged one of his daughter’s old doll beds on his night stand, adding a little doll rug for the loyal pet to sleep on as well. 

Plankton sniffled slightly as he was tucked in as if her were a child by his friend, a tender smile lined on his face. 

He didn’t know what would come tomorrow. He had lost his home, his job, his wife, his livelihood. But still, somehow, he had dug up his estranged relationship and revived it and found the friend he had missed for so long.

Once the light was flicked off, Plankton gingerly stepped out of his little bed and hopped onto the larger man’s bed, sneaking back into his shirt pocket with only a pillow from the tiny bed. He yawned and grinned as a hand tenderly found the back of his head and nuzzled it gently.

“I’ve missed this.” Was all he could muster up in the darkness, his eye trembling shut. “I’ve missed you.”

Eugene just hummed in contentment and swallowed hard. “Me too, buddy, me too.”


End file.
